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Wednesday, July 20, 2011

No-work freezer meals

These aren't recipes, really, but just ideas of very quick ways to perk up plain-jane food and a reminder that you can usually do what little work there is ahead of time to make life just that much easier on yourself.

For the salad dressing chicken, I made a double batch to use up all the dressing from one bottle (2 batches of 1.5lbs. marinated chicken breasts each). Salad dressing tends to hand around at my house, and I'd rather just use it all up in one fell freezer swoop. I used Greek Vinaigrette and Roasted Red Pepper Italian flavors, but just about any kind of prepared dressing would be good.

Pacific sockeye salmon is particularly good RIGHT NOW (it's the season for Copper River sockeye in particular), so give this one a try even if you think you don't like fish. Especially if you think you don't like fish b/c it's dry. Baking it at a lower temp makes a huge difference in the final product, and I'm not sure I'll ever fix salmon another way now.

Salad Dressing ChickenMakes 12 servings (separate into as many batches as you wish)

Divide chicken among freezer bags in quantities desired. Divide salad dressing equally among freezer bags. Smoosh the chicken around to make sure its well covered. Freeze or fridge.

To cook, thaw and drain marinade from chicken. Discard marinade. Bake boneless parts for 25-30 minutes at 350F, bone-in parts for 40-45 minutes at 350F or a whole chicken for 1 - 1 1/4 hours depending on size. Or dredge chicken parts in flour and fry in oil until cooked through (20 minutes or so for boneless, 40 minutes or so for bone-in).